


Into the

by lily_lovely



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Dark, Gen, Poetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-25
Updated: 2009-06-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 15:39:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lily_lovely/pseuds/lily_lovely
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where do you go, after?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the

**Author's Note:**

> The Latin Giles uses at the end roughly translates to "Cover her in darkness". I used an online translator for it, so I'm aware it's probably completely wrong, but it sounds okay.

Her name is Rebs.

Short for Rebecca, but no one ever calls her that.

She's got this guy—he follows her around.  
Not that way—he's old, like a father,  
she guesses.  
Anyway, he tries to get her to train,  
helps her learn how to fight.

She doesn't know why, but  
Rebs figures he's got a thing for thinking about  
hot young girls beating up  
scary old men.

Whatever,  
he's good,  
knows moves she never even dreamed of before  
when she was just decking anyone she  
could find.

So she starts to think he's on her side—like he  
wants her to be good at this.

And then he dies. She swings by his  
house one day to use his punching bag and  
finds him stabbed through the back,  
bleeding like a stuck pig all over the floor,  
sharp-ass knife still sticking out of him.

Whatever. It's not like she cares.  
___

She gets a call one day  
some girl from California—she's never been to  
California, that's the place for  
rich people and movie stars.

It's about her guy  
Johnson  
the girl tells her he's dead, which  
is kind of a duh moment,  
and then all this other stuff starts spewing out of her.

She only gets snippets—Watcher, Slayer, super powers,  
one girl in all the world, demons, vampires.  
It's take back the night kind of stuff, and  
part of her thinks she digs it, but the other part thinks that she  
never learned his first name.

Not that it matters.

British guy—a Watcher like Johnson, and with a title like that,  
she figures she was right about him being a  
pervert—tells her she has to leave,  
go live with them.

It sounds sketchy, but as she breathes  
heavy into the phone, listening to the sound echo back to her,  
she thinks that she might as well.

Nothing's keeping her here—dad left, mom died, she lives  
with her stepdad, who's a douche,  
but not a pervert like everyone assumes  
he must be  
and like these freaks probably all are.

House full of young girls? It's either a porn  
factory or a lesbian commune.  
But both of those are more interesting than  
going to the gym by herself.

Why not. She's never  
been to California, and she can always  
beat up anyone who tries to come onto her.  
___

She walks in the door and it's like  
a Jackson Pollock painting—she saw one of those  
the one time she went to an art museum, back when  
her mom was around to care about her character. She remembers  
staring at it, trying to figure out how he decided  
which colors went where.

Now that she's in this house—and it doesn't actually  
seem to be a sex shop at all, which is kind of disappointing—she  
knows how he did it.  
He just put them wherever they could fit.

Girl after girl bounces over and says hi—they're all so  
cheery, so excited.

Kind of makes her want to beat them all up.

Their names blur together into  
Chaovimandennedy. But one of them sticks out.

Buffy?

Yeah, this is California.  
___

"Hey, so I heard you had a Watcher. What was that like?"

Rebs tries to smile, but it comes out as more of a squint.

"Oh, well. I didn't actually know  
he was my Watcher at the time."

"Really? That's so weird. I mean, don't they, like, have to tell you?"

She grits her teeth.

"Guess not."

"So he just worked out with you?"

Balls her fists...

"Yeah. Maybe he was gonna tell me later."

"Huh. I wonder why he didn't tell you.  
That's so weird."

The other girls start  
comparing scars or some shit, but it keeps bugging at her  
like a mosquito bite in the middle of her back.

Why didn't he tell her? Did he think she couldn't  
handle it? That—that she was some kind of delinquent?

That she'd never be called?

No, Johnson wouldn't do that. Pervert or not, he  
believed in her.

Did he?

Maybe he never did. Maybe he didn't—

one girl in all the world  
chosen chosen chosen  
"You'll never be good for anything, you stupid whore!"  
different special chosen  
"Why can't you dress like all the other girls?"  
blood on her hands Johnson's dead he's  
"Rebecca, honey, you have to stop letting  
this get to you."  
she's no good she's not chosen  
no one chose her

"Oh my god, she's going nuts!"  
___

"Do you know why you're here, Rebecca?"

She glares up at British guy trying to play fucking  
Dumbledore, keeping her in this  
crappy dank room until she cries and  
tells him it was all her father's fault.

It's not working.

"It's Rebs."

"Alright. Rebs. Do you know why you're here?"

"Cause I beat the shit out of one of the other girls."

"Well, yes, mostly. But also because of what you were saying to her."

That's none of his business.

"Look, I—it doesn't matter. It didn't mean anything."

"Who was Johnson to you?"

How dare he ask that?

"Fuck you."

"I need to know."

Like hell.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

He examines her, coldly.

"I gave you a chance, Rebs. It's a pity you  
threw it away."

He lifts his hand, and  
through her rage, she suddenly notices the hocus-pocus potion  
he's about to smash against the ground.

"You're a liability to the team.. We cannot have you  
endangering the mission this close to the  
final battle."

He pauses, staring at her like he  
wants to say something. She wishes  
he would just get it over with.

"Occulto suus in obscurum!"

The vague thoughts she had jumbling through her  
before finally become  
just  
one:

She's gonna go into the light.


End file.
